Gilbert, Frank T. "Historic Sketches of Walla Walla, Whitman, Columbia and Garfield Counties, Washington Territory, and Umatilla County, Oregon." Portland, OR: Print. and Lithographing House of A.G. Walling, 1882. p. a25. Umatilla County. WILLIAM McCOY A resident of Milton, Umatilla Co, Oregon, was born August 1, 1834, in Hancock Co., Illinois. During the early years of his life his parents removed from that locality to Iowa and then north-western Missouri, where the intervening years until 1848 were spent in Davis and DeKalb counties. The father moved again in 1848, this time to Texas, where the years that followed during William's minority, were passed in that free, untrammeled enjoyment of nature's bounteous life that leaves the memory of it a glimpse "of paradise lost." A free rein and wild flight, over those limitless prairies in pursuit of antelope or the wild horse, was a favorite pastime, with enough of danger from occasional bands of prowling hostile savages, to make it a life attractively wild as that which chains to his native land the Arab, or the Tartar to the plains of Central Asia. In 1857, September 20, he was married to Mrs. T. A. Sikes, of Johnson Co. (now Hood), Texas, and there lived until 1867, on the Brazos river, when they started to cross the plains for Oregon. Owing to high water in the Texas streams, they did not reach their destination that year. In October, 1868, they arrived in the vicinity of where they now live, at Milton, Umatilla Co., Oregon, at which point the intervening years have been spent. The father of William McCoy, named James McCoy, was born in Floyd Co., Kentucky, in 1805. He was a hunter and frontiersman; a man honored and respected by those who knew him. In 1865 he was overtaken by a band of hostile Indians near Fort Belknap, Texas, near where he was living, and was killed, a son meeting at the same time the father's fate. In this last struggle they sent to the happy hunting ground a few of their assailants, to herald their approach to the silent river. The wife of the murdered pioneer, whose maiden name was Nancy Nolen, only survived her husband a few months. Of the original family there are now living only six boys and one girl, all of whom reside either in Oregon or Washington Territory. Of the eight children of Mr. and Mrs. William McCoy, but the following three are living: Elizabeth, born July 3, 1862; Emma, November 14, 1866; and Mary, March 21, 1876. The main occupation of Mr. McCoy is raising fruit, such as apples, pears, peaches, raspberries, strawberries and blackberries; of the last named he grows about one ton each year, marketing them in the eastern part of Oregon. One of our illustrations portrays Mr. McCoy's house. ******************* Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in September 2005 by Diana Smith. Submitter has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned above.